Fate's twist
by Faeriefire
Summary: A 'What if' one shot of Mia Fey and Diego Armanodo. What if fate had dealt a different hand that day Diego was poisoned?


Hello, and thank you for reading my on shot Miego piece.

As normal bla-bla-bla, these characters belong to Capcom (save for the Miego baby XD)  
On that note, if you are by chance curious, the baby's name Jairo would be read 'Hay-row', which would sound a lot like the Japanese name Hero which I found appropriate for the merging of these two cultures since my personal HC's for Mia and Diego always seems to place them at being Asian/Hispanic.

Review are loved and appreciated since they are encuragement and are always helpful in growth.

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A lot can change in four years. That's how long it can take you to graduate collage, the time that is needed to raise a newborn baby to a schooling age, or the lifespan of a small rodent. It was also the number of years it had been since Diego Armando had confronted Dahlia Hawthorne

Four years ago on that day he questioned Dahlia, it had not been a good coffee day. It was if the world was out to get him, that he had displeased the coffee Gods and they were seeing revenge. He had woken up late and had found there was not a coffee bean left in his loft. This had set the Cuban in a panic, the day had never started for him in the last fifteen years without eight cups of coffee as he would shower and dress for the day.  
The frantic search had caused him to be late getting out of the door. He had no time to stop and buy himself at least one cup of coffee before heading to the office. There was still that hopeful ray of hope knowing he could at least start his day off right when he made it into his office. He always had a coffee maker and his own stash of beans in there after all. It would be nothing to grind some of those French roast beans and have something to start his day with.  
That's what he thought, but much to his dismay, when he arrived at the office he found there was no running water in the building... The entire block to be exact. The city was working on the water pipes, and all the precious potential coffee nectar was spraying every which way out into the streets if you looked out the window in Robert Hammond's office. This was indeed a bad coffee day, his equivalent to what a Kitten would call a bad hair day.

His day had been busy, never leaving the office though. There was a pile of paperwork he had to go through, and his little office Kitten, Mia Fey was with Grossburg in a trial today. He might have asked her to go pick him up some coffee if she had been there, but there was no such luck today. If it had been any other day then this one, he might have shirked his paperwork to go get himself a cup himself. That was no option today though. He needed to finish his work today if he wanted to get out early like he planned, he had a special date in the courtroom cafeteria after all...

-**Time:** 4:00 pm **Date: **August 27th, 2012 **Location: **Court House Cafeteria -

Dahlia Hawthorne was a poisonous Kitten She had killed multiple people, and had somehow managed to escape justice every time, pinning the death on someone else. Every time she had evaded with a smile that had fooled so many. She was a puppeteer, and every man she had sunken her claws into, she had made her puppet. Diego's girlfriend, Mia had experienced the heartbreaking reality that sometimes the innocent do suffer and people like this Dahlia were allowed to walk away free because of this. Mia's first trial she had been defending a man by the name of Terry Fawles. He was being held for escaping police custody and killing an officer with one witness, Miss. Hawthorne herself.

For her first court trial (murder none the less), Diego was quite proud that his Kitten did so well. She had successfully found holes in Dahlia's testimony time and again, and she was going for the kill. He watched her pull out her claws and point the evidence back at Dahlia to prove that the witness was actually the murderer of the detective (who was incidentally her own step-sister). There had came to the point there the evidence was all there, Mia was one testimony away from proving her client innocent and proving that the real murderer had been Dahlia herself. That is when the puppeteer had manipulated the strings on one of her puppets, Terry. To protect his 'teen angel' he drank a poison from a bottle he and Miss. Hawthorne had hidden years prior. He dropped dead in that very court room, taking his testimony that would convict the woman he sill loved even though she was just using him.

That had all been six months ago, but Mia was still devastated over it. She cried after that trial and to this day she had not taken a single case on. Her spirit had been utterly crushed, and this is why Diego was now meeting Dahlia in the courtroom cafeteria He had finally found the evidence he needed to get her convicted, and he would finally restore his Kitten's spirit by showing her justice was not dead.

Now Diego despised the courthouse's 'justice blend', or so they called their feeble attempt at a cup of coffee. It was weak and stale, hardly anything left in it to resemble coffee any more. On a day like this though, Diego didn't care. He would drink it and not care since today was not a day he had room to complain. When Dahlia had walked in, he was just getting settled at a table, his open cup of coffee beside him and his folder filled with copies of his evidence against her before him. This was going to be his final showdown with her, this was going to be the fall of Dahlia Hawthorne...

"It's nice to see you again, Mr. Armando~" She purred out his name, her sickeningly sweet smile plastered on her face as she delicately sat in the apposing chair and sat her cup of tea down, careful to keep her white chiffon dress tucked as she lowered herself into it. She kept the smile as she flicked her red, strait hair behind her shoulder, never lowering her parasol. The shadows it created from the florescent lights above almost gave her a ghastly effect, but Diego paid no mind. He was focused on the task ahead, he had to come at her fast and hard with the dirt he had dug up. This Kitten was clever, and contained poison in her words. From what he had seen, first hand and in his documents, she was notorious for planting seeds of doubt and persuasion and sprinkling them with miracle grow. He didn't want to give her time to do anything that might make he back down from this.. No, he wouldn't back down, he couldn't. Mia depended on him and he couldn't let his Kitten down...

Time pass by quickly in that small cafe, ten... fifteen, thirty minutes... Almost an hour had pass buy and the room had emptied out of people. By the time Diego had laid all his cards out on the table, it was just them two, and the kitchen staff, slaving over dirty pans.

"Well there you have it, Kitten. I found those missing years between you falling off the bridge and you showing up in this court house six months ago. This right here is enough to lock you up for a looooong time. Now, if you go ahead and give us your confession, things might go a little easier for you rather then if you just let the cards fall when I turn this over to the police and prosecutors office. Your call, Kitten."  
Diego smirked as he took a sip of his coffee before setting it down and leaned back in his chair. Dahlia was still facing him... Well, almost. This entire conversation she had became quieter and quieter, her true self slowly surfacing. Right now she was sitting across from him, head bowed. He had this Kitten corned, like an antelope being backed into a rock by a lion. He had just made his final pounce to put the creature out of her misery.

When she had looked up, her eyes were full of tears as she looked at him. It was like this for a few moments before her face turned to confusion as she looked past him.

"Miss. Fey?" She said confused. Diego's eyes shot open wide as he looked behind him. This was bad, he didn't want her knowing he was sticking his nose where it didn't belong, he didn't want her to know he was questioning Dahlia Hawthorne in privet. Her catching him was less then an idea situation.

What he didn't know though when he turned around to find Mia wasn't there, Dahlia was quick in action. She removed the necklace she had been wearing, a golden heart with a small crystal bottle in the middle, and dumped the contents into his cup of coffee which looked to contain no more then one last gulp. She was quick to conceal the necklace before he looked back, relieved, and slightly irritated. Dahlia only gave him a dazed look, continuing with her act.

"I thought for sure she was there..."

"Give it up, Kitten. It's just you and me, no one is going to save you from this fate you've put yourself into. I know where you've been and who you've met, and I know better then anyone just how alone you are in this world." He said as he picked up his coffee cup and slowly raised it to his lips.

The unnaturally red head sat still, staring at her hands. Out of the corner of her eye she kept her eye on him. She wanted to see him finish his drink, she wanted to see him choke on the poison, she wanted him to-

"Diego?"

This was bad, this was bad for both Dahlia and Diego...

The two looked to find Mia standing behind Diego, playing with her bangs. An unfortunate habit as Dahlia saw it. The young female attorney looked confused and upset as what she was seeing.

"I really wasn't hoping you would find out this way, but... Kitten, I have her pinned down." Diego smirked up at her, setting his coffee down in a haste.

Fate can be kind, and it can also be cruel. One of the most tragic outcomes though is when it decides to be twisted. For you see, in these few minutes, fate was changed off it's normal course. Mia never should have arrived in that cafeteria after her trial, after Grossburg was done he was suppose to take her and himself back to the office where they would finish paperwork until Mia went on her date with Diego. Something had changed though, Mia had to relieve herself, and she had remembered that they had no running water at the office. While her employer waited, he had ran to the little ladies room where she had heard two court reporters gossiping about the 'yummy attorney drinking coffee with that delicate young woman.'

Being the curious Kitten Mia was, she at once decided to visit the cafeteria where the ladies had been talking about seeing Mr. Yummy and his mysterious date. Surly it wasn't her boyfriend, and if it was, who was he drinking coffee with? What a surprise it was when he found there with that woman... That woman that had caused her so many sleepless nights.

This wasn't even the delicious part of this twist of fate though. The twist was as Diego hastily sat down his cup and turned to face the Kitten he adored, he hadn't noticed that he had sat it on his folder. It being so large, the cup sat at a slant, and the cup of poisoned coffee spilled onto the floor. Diego paid no mind as he soothed his Kitten's hurt feelings, but Dahlia sat in horror before giving out a scream. Her one chance had been foiled, she would be going to prison.

That had been four years ago. Dahlia Hawthorne was behind bars now, paying for the lives she had swindled and lost. Fate had also seemed to have been kind to Diego and Mia, for in this span of time, the two had wedded, opened their own law firm, and were living happily with their new son Jairo. Sadly they had not been dealt a card that would lead them to happily ever after, fate was not that kind. They had been given a time extension...

-**Time:** 5:22 pm **Date:**September 5th, 2016 **Location: **Armando Law Office& Co. -

Mia sat behind her desk, her cellphone pinned between her ear and shoulder. She was shuffling papers around on her desk, placing sticking notes on piles, trying to organized them. As if that wasn't difficult enough, she was trying to think over the sound of Diego on the other line, trying to calm a crying nine month old.

"Kitten, when are you coming home? I thought we agreed to take a break while things there were calm." The Latino said on the other end of the line, Mia just sort of nodded, forgetting for a moment he couldn't see her.

" I'll be home as soon as I can, okay? I'm just wrapping up some paperwork on the whole Redd White thing since I found that news article today. I think I finally have him, Diego. I talked to the family and they were able to get me some papers that will link him to the blackmailing. I'm so close to catching this guy, I can taste it!"

"I know what I can taste, Kitten... Fritas... I know you don't like those as well as normal burgers, but would you say no if I made those for dinner tonight?"

"Mmmm, can't... Dinner tonight with my sister, did you forget?"

Diego muttered something in Spanish on the other end, seemingly to the baby since there was this muffled shuffling coming through the line. Something that sounded oddly familiar to that of a baby grabbing a phone as you try and talk into the speaker. It was a moment before he was able to respond.

"Oh yeah, that was tonight, wasn't it?"

"Mmmhmm, I was just about to call her and confirm details. Knowing her we're probably not going to get to eat until 9 though since she's probably not even gotten on the bus yet. So you will want to feed Jairo before then and maybe you a snack?"

"Am I going to pick you two up at the office?"

"That's right, Lion." Mia grinned, her eyes flicking to the photo on her desk that had her and her two boys in it. "There should be a jar of baby food left over from lunch in the fridge. Just feed him that along with some apple sauce? Oh! And no coffee, Diego!"

"Ha!" He scoffed on the other end, no doubt with a huge smirk. "We're already on our second bottle, Kitten!"

Mia frowned, and she did her best to give him his best Fey scowl through the phone. "That better be a joke, or else I"m hunting you down with my kendo stick."

Her phone gave a beep, snapping her out of her threat, and caused her to rush her conversation

"Just try and be here around 8:45 unless I call you otherwise, Diego? My cell is dying, so I can't talk for long. Please... Please don't forget to pack the diaper bag too, I don't want another indecent where we have to dress him in your vest as a make shift backup diaper again."

Diego gave a chuckle as a baby's chatter could be heard on his end, "I'll remember, Kitten. I'll see you before long... I love you."

Mia stroked his face in the photo with a smile. "I love you too, Diego... Bye..."

With that she hung up and sat her cellphone on her desk so she could finish working. She just had to get these last few incidents filed together in a secret file she had been building for the last 6 years on Redd White. She did keep a few sheets separate from the others though. These were special, and Mrs. Armando couldn't help but glance up at the statue-like clock of 'The Thinker' sitting on her desk, freshly gutted of his internals.

-**Time:** 9:05 pm **Date:**September 5th, 2016 **Location: **Armando Law Office& Co. -

Diego was running late, that's all there was to it. By the time he had pulled into the parking lot, pulled the baby out of his car seat, and made it into the office, it was already five past 9. He didn't care too much though, this was normal any more with the tot in tow. It was funny how something so little took so much time out of your schedule and needed so much extra prep to get anywhere.

When he first entered the unlocked office, nothing seemed off. The fact he had a child tugging on his golden earrings and creating quite a painful sensation probably wasn't very helpful though. It defiantly wasn't helping him pick up on the fact that all the lights were off in the sitting room, let alone, none coming from under the door in the back office that he and Mia used when they were talking to clients.

It did take a minute for this to all register, but when he did, he stood in a daze. He kept looking around the office, ignoring the yanking on his ear as he tried to place his finger on what was wrong.

"Kitten?" He yelled out, expecting a reply, but none came. Had her and Maya gone on to dinner? Surely not, Mia had came to despise public transportation since the two of them had their own car. There was also the fact that he knew his sister-in-law wanted to see her nephew dearly. She loved spoiling Jairo, and knowing her, she probably had some Steel Samurai toy to give him, despite the age recommendation that came with it.

When Mia had failed to respond, he at once felt disturbed Holding the baby close to his chest, he cautiously crept around. He could feel it, there was tension in the air... Something was wrong...

He approached the back office door and pushed it open, seeing it was slightly ajar. What he saw inside though, he was not prepared for. His Kitten, Mia Armando leaned against the wall under the window, blood trickling out from somewhere he could not see at the moment. There was a figured crouched next to her, but something in the back of his head was telling him they were no threat, and allowing him to focus fully on his wife.

The coppery smell of blood stung his nose, he ignored it though as he couched on the apposing side of the other figure. His only focus as he hugged his cooing son even closer was to check her pulse. Her skin was still warm, but he could detect no pulse... She was dead.

Grief at once washed over him, and the building at once filled with his howling, savage cries. He was praying, pleading in Spanish if there was a god to just bring his Kitten back. He needed her... Not just him, no... Their son needed her. They needed her so badly, why was this happening? He wailed in grief, drowning out the crying of his son as he fussed. The child's big brown eyes were focused on his mommy, and even though he didn't know why she was sitting there like that, he did know who she was and what she was to him. Daddy was being loud and he wanted his mommy's warm embrace and comforting food to make things better. The fact that his mommy wasn't having pity on his cries, nor that his father was letting him crawl over to him was upsetting him.

The more the child cried, the tighter Diego gripped him, slowly hurting the child. It took the small hands of a Kitten on his arm to cause him to relax and look. The figure had looked, and her tear filled brown eyes were showing compassion. It wasn't just him and Jairo that had suffered a loss tonight, it was Maya Fey as well, Mia's youngest and only sibling.

Though none of them were at the stage of verbal communication, Maya was able to pry her nephew from his fathers arm and rocked the little boy, trying to comfort him and shield him from the sight of his mother. Diego had started to shake in rage as his fingers gripped his hair. He kept staring at Mia, and in the back of his head he knew he needed to call for someone, to call for the ambulance.. the police... someone right now to help them. Shock hadn't worn off though, and he still couldn't seem to grasp a language in his mind. It took for another individual to burst through the door in his blue suit and red tie ages later... No, it had only been a few minutes, hadn't it?

The next few hours had been like a feverish nightmare. Someone at the hotel next door had called the police after Phoenix Wright, the Jr. Associate had arrived. The police had arrived within minutes to start their questioning. Nick and Maya had moved to the sitting area with the baby as the police talked to them, but Diego had not been able to leave Mia's side. He didn't care that he was covered in her blood. He just wanted to be close to her. To smell the incense like perfume on her skin, to hold her small hand in his and stroke it with his fingers. He just wanted to be by her forever.

The police was not quite as understanding about this though, the investigators removed him from her side (despite him putting up a good fight and managing to land a few blows). The head detective, Dick Gumshoe ended up being the one to put his arm around him and lead the broken man away from his dead wife. No one in the room could deny the sorrow in his eyes as he pleaded for them to let her near her again.

In the end when all was said and done; After the the police had talked to everyone, including the witness from the hotel, Diego was the one arrested for the murder of his own wife.

There was no motive, but he was the prime suspect since the witness had claimed to have seen a large man strike the victim down. Jairo was left with Maya in this time, with the two ultimately being watched over by Wright.

-**Time:** 10:00 pm **Date:**September 6th, 2016 **Location: **Detention Center. -

Diego hadn't even been locked up for a full 24 hours when he got his first visitor. He was so distant he didn't even register who was sitting across from him on the other side of plexiglass, but it was the firm voice that lassoed him back to earth.

"Lion..."

His eyes focused, there on the other side was his Kitten... Mia was there with her sister's hair and garbs. So this was the power of the Fey clan. He looked about ready to break down as he pressed his hand to the glass, looking much like a sad pawing at the kids on the other side of his cage.

"Diego, where's my strong lion? You're starting to look more like a wet kitten then anything."

"Kitten, how can I not when you're dead?"

She gave a sad smile as she placed his hand on the glass with his.

"I'm dead in body, but I"m not dead in spirit. I'm right here after all, aren't I?"

Diego didn't reply, but he did look to the side.

"Now how have I crippled you this badly? I thought I had built you up, not torn you down."

"I don't think you realized how much of my world you've became, Kitten."

Mia frowned at this, crossing her arms under her cleavage. "Diego Armando, I'm ashamed of you. I understand this isn't easy, it's no walk in the park for me either, but I need you to pull it together and be strong! What about Jairo? What is going to happen to our son if you don't pull your act together?"

Diego stared at her, looking slightly ashamed. "You're sister has him right now..."

Mia looked around her, shaking her head. "Last I checked I was in my sister's body, so where's my son?"

Diego didn't respond again.

"Stop shutting down on me and listen." Mia waited until he was focusing on her again before going on. "Now, things aren't going to get any easier from now on. From what I've been hearing you're the one being held for my death even though we both know who the real killer is here..."

"Redd..."

"That's right... So Diego... What I need right now is for you to stay strong... Help Wry out with this trial so that you can be released... Then... Raise my baby boy... Raise him to be a strong, courageous Lion like yourself for me. Then maybe someday you can watch him chase after Kittens just like you did, and eventually capture the heart of one, just like you did."

Diego pressed his forehead against the glass, staring at her as she leaned closer, kissing the glass.

"I know you can do that Diego... "

"I can Kitten... I'll find a way."

Mia gave a smile, bashing the desire within she had to break through this glass and hold that hurt, big cat on the other side. She knew he loved her, but she had never been able to imagine how much this would hurt him until she saw it now.

"No tears, Lion... Be strong for us... For Jairo..."

"I know Kitten... The only time a lawyer can cry is when it's all over. "


End file.
